Xavier Dolan - C ou D?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

A search brings up a few scattered references throughout ILX, but it doesn't look like this guy is going away anytime soon, so how about his own thread? I'd been hesitant to check him out for a while--too much about his career reeked of novelty to me--but I finally caved and watched Tom at the Farm today. To my surprise, he's actually quite a skilled and impressive filmmaker; on the basis of this picture, at least, he seems like someone incapable of making an uninteresting shot, and this might be the very best *looking* recent-ish movie I've seen in a while (it was shot on film, I think?).

As a story, though, this felt suspiciously like a first draft. My biggest (**spoiler-ish**) problem is that the character of the brother was presented as a raving psychopath from the moment he's introduced, and as the film is about (or *seems* to be about, at least) the Dolan character's attraction/repulsion to this character, credibility is stretched too early and too often. Even if I accept that an out-and-proud young gay urbanite might temporarily fall for this guy under the spell of mourning, the late introduction of a woman who, in one moment, dishes back the creep's abuse and then, in another, is (possibly) hooking up with him is downright insulting. Ultimately, the film, as someone said elsewhere on the board, ends up making very little psychological sense.

So, I dunno, maybe he needs to try directing someone else's scripts? Or at least getting a less stupid hairstyle.

Somewhat on Alfred's point, one thing that was in my mind while watching Tom at the Farm was the bad timing of releasing another, vastly inferior queer-themed French-language thriller around the same time as Stranger by the Lake.

genuinely surprised you guys find him "worthless!" he is stuipidly young though

i had never considered before that non-quebs wouldn't like his films but hearing morbs & alfred say they don't like them made me realise there is a lot of regional specificity. does the s1ock like his films? i haven't seen tom at the farm. i watched mommy with my girlfriend who is francophone and grew up in a similar suburban lower-middle class single mother household and she was dying in laughter at simple lines like "pass the creton" and at other moments was like, bawling in the theatre.

it's been too long since i saw jai tué ma mere so i'll re-screen before i sing its praise but mommy is just untouchable imo. best thing about it was the warmth of the friendship between mother, son, and neighbor. the way it swung from the creepiness of the abusive episode and the son's come-ons during the neighbor's first visits to him warming up to trust them and the ensuing romps they shared. the emotional arc was pitch perfect, too. yes, it had to have the *spoiler* tragic ending *end spoiler* *actually, spoilers throughout* but it didn't go there too soon and really dwelled on the good times in a really life-affirming way. there's probably a slate article arguing the exact opposite of this but i thought the way it treated his hyperactive disorder was great. my step-brother was kind of a similar case; beautiful, charming kid, super magnetic, but who got kicked out out of two high schools and constantly got into fights. and a lot of my memories of growing up with him weren't sad shitty moments, they were super fun. i would kind of ride his hyperactive spurts with him, allow myself to go there with him. i think the way the film captured how it's fun up until a threshold where it gets ugly was really true, to my xp at least. finally, aesthetically it was a masterpiece imo. it made a fucking longeuil suburb into the setting of a touching art film. it made me tear up to fucking oasis. i've read in media & from people who have had acquaintances with him that xav is actually a pretty cheezy guy who grew up in a lower-class family and is emblematic of that tranche of quebec society*, not some rich film school snob as i would have otherwise guessed. and i think he really turned it into a beautiful work of art without shortchanging it in any way

*one friend worked at a really fancy cheese shop where, like, the mayor and the bronfmans shopped, said he would frequently come in with his partner and ask to sample all the cheapest cheeses, basically stuff you could get at any grocery store but they stocked there just because, and would like, rave and describe each one in highest praise

Saw Mommy at local theatre yesterday, one of the best movies I've seen this year. Strong performances, convincing characters, great visual style, nuanced treatment of subject matter, good use of soundtrack etc. Flopson otm re arc. Was almost crying at the end. Very youthful film. Liked the sentimental approach to storytelling (as opposed to analytical) a bit more emotionally associative editing than a rational/causal focus, somewhat reminiscent of Boyhood but really just similar to a lot of contemporary "indie" cinema.

I watched Heartbeats again, and there's so much to like about it -- the way he captures what it's like to dress like your icons, to smoke a lot of cigarettes without regret, his use of deep focus in the midst of frivolity -- that I wish it were better. At any rate it's a better debut than I Killed My Mother.

I saw it again: it's got enough powerful bits such that if someone wants to call it a masterpiece of something or other I won't quibble. But it's (as usual) grueling, and, boy, do his people shout a lot.

think i'm gonna stop giving this guy any more chances. every single scene in the new one goes on about two-three minutes longer than it ought to, and i know it's an adaptation of play so he didn't write but the script is just terrible. he has all of these top-shelf actors and he makes all of them just unbearable (cotillard and cassel especially, argh). ulliel's got a lovely face, but looks aren't everything and even at 90 minutes this was just a sloooooooog

It's Only the End of the World affirms my earlier suspicion that he is a talented director who needs better scripts. The concluding one-two punch of some punishingly literal magic realism (at least I think that's what he was going for) and the Moby song were particularly eye-rolling.

My friends hated it, and they're willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. He's good in Boy Erased, though, so maybe this talented pretty boy should pull a John Cassavetes and develop his finely gelled hostility as an actor.